Hours of rest checker (MLC 2006)
Mark a week of watches and work, and see at once whether it meets the rest hours in the Maritime Labour Convention.
Hours of rest
Mark the hours worked: click or drag across the half-hours. Unmarked time counts as rest, so mark short breaks as work.
- Least rest in any 24 hours
- 16 hours (minimum 10)
- Rest in the 7 days
- 112 hours (minimum 77)
The rules it checks
Standard A2.3 of the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 sets the limits a flag State applies. Where hours of rest are the measure, the minimums are:
- At least 10 hours of rest in any 24-hour period (paragraph 5(b)(i)).
- At least 77 hours of rest in any seven-day period (paragraph 5(b)(ii)).
- Rest divided into no more than two periods, one of them at least 6 hours long (paragraph 6).
- No more than 14 hours between consecutive rest periods (paragraph 6).
The checker tests every 24-hour period in the week, starting at each half-hour, so a short rest across midnight is caught. The two-period and 6-hour rules are tested for each calendar day.
What it leaves to the flag and the ship
A flag State may set maximum hours of work instead of minimum hours of rest (paragraph 2), and collective agreements may allow exceptions (paragraph 13). The master may suspend the schedule for the immediate safety of the ship, people on board or cargo, or to help others in distress, and must then give adequate rest (paragraph 14). Hours of rest exclude short breaks, so a break of a few minutes belongs in the work time here.
Keeping the record
Records of each seafarer’s daily hours of work or rest must be kept in a standard format, and each seafarer receives a copy endorsed by the master or a person the master authorizes, and by the seafarer (paragraph 12).